Thursday, October 2, 2014

Normally,
we do not link virtues like compassion and empathy with the notion of
capitalism. It seems that within capitalism, there is not much room
for benevolence, but capitalism has rather an ingrained and deeply
embedded love and adoration for money, which is, in its extent and
degree not unlike the awe and fascination with God when it comes to
religion. The sheer existence and raison d'être of capitalism are
the profits that are connected with it. Put differently, a capitalist
who fails to make money is considered a loser, or worse, an utter
failure.

That
appears to be the root of most of the problems, and therein lies the
root of evil essentially. It is not money itself, which is merely a
tool and can be used for beneficial and compassionate purposes, but
it is the undying love and reverence attached to it, which lurks its
ugly head as corporate greed. Money becomes tainted and sullied with
one's crass and grandiose ambitions, which often occur at the expense
of one's own humanity.

To
say that I do not appreciate, respect or even love money would be
erroneous. To ask me -- or most of us -- to give it all away or to
share it freely with others would be ranging from heroic deed to
downright folly. Money especially if earned and accumulated by the
sweat of the brow or by the works of wit and creativity is entirely a
matter of entitlement.

However,
my savings account pales in comparison with those who have more than
million-fold their basic demands and necessities for various
lifetimes down the road. My dream of one day owning four walls may
merely remain that, namely a dream, but I would never dream
of owning a yacht or my private jet. Now that to me seems outright
folly.

Why
you may ask. In the past, we have had millionaires or at the very top
multi-millionaires. That seemed in itself quite a big deal, but now,
even with inflation counted in, we have billionaires.
This is an amount of money I cannot even imagine, let alone count or
run through my hands. In fact, it is, by all means and standards, a
ludicrous amount.

The
question that I often ask myself is the following: How did these
people become so filthy
(to use a more benign f-word here) rich? In many cases, I am aware
that it comes through hard work and perhaps with the right amount of
luck, but still this must be someone's hard-earned money from
somewhere. It is money tainted with sweat and worse, even blood.

It
might be a factory worker working away all day for a fraction of a
fraction, for a salary which may (or may not) help her to get by
barely. These profits that show up on the rich person’s bank
account may be a large chunk of someone's salary who is not starving
but who has fallen into the consumerist trap of buying useless (and
perhaps worthless) things to make him feel happy. That happiness
literally comes at a cost and may only last for a little while, and
it may give him something to brag about for a moment or two.

This
is the situation and scenario in the most harmless or most ethical of
cases. I will not go into cases where illegal or quasi-legal
transactions or investments lead to (undeserved and unmerited)
capitalist gain. Those are evidently seen as wrong, but our focus
here is those legitimate businesses that squeeze profits by squeezing
the general public's pockets.

This
is how it is in the capitalist world; you may hear its proponents say.
The rich get rich and the poor stay poor. The games and opportunities
are open for anyone who takes a risk or who works hard enough. Even you can
partake of the beautiful staple American dream if you only try hard
(and long) enough.

But
the game is rigged. The American dream is exactly that, namely a
dream, if not a downright lie. In a capitalist system, there cannot
be winners only. In a sport event it may be all about participating,
but in capitalism the line is drawn quite clearly between the haves
and the have-nots. You cannot have your cake and eat it too because
the cake has already been eaten, including crumbs.

Here
I would like to propose a solution to this dilemma. We could
eradicate poverty in our city, country or even the world if those
with more than nine figures to their name actually showed some heart.
If they realized that money is not everything and that what they have
gained through work or exploitation can be used for the benefit and
happiness of others.

It
angers me to see people not have enough, while others delve and swim
in money substantially and significantly beyond their possible needs.
Sure we could ask that everybody ought to give a hand to stop poverty
or this type of injustice, but much more can be achieved by those who
have more than necessary resources. If one day (and God bless the
Bill Gates and Warren Buffets who are showing at least some
initiative in this direction) the wealthy said we have more than
enough and let us give away a large sum of our money to help others
from starving and from suffering in their daily life because those
states and situations are simply wrong and unacceptable.

In
fact, let us change policies that benefit us only (I am speaking for
the rich or rather in the name of the wealthy hypothetically
speaking) and let us allow or better let us put pressure on
politicians to pass laws that do not merely benefit the rich but laws
that are truly fair and equitable. Let us give instead of taking
because we have already taken more than we can handle in a single
lifetime.

Recently,
I attended an interesting and moving (or downright depressing) talk
that dealt with issues of poverty. In that case, the solution was
seen as treating poverty as a disease and to show the government that
prevention was the best method. The speaker Gary Bloch, being a
doctor and an activist knew what he was talking about both because of
his profession and experience with working with the poor in Canada.
He and others that evening suggested and demonstrated that by
investing into poverty reduction, everyone would benefit; it even
made sense economically as the government (and hence taxpayers) would
eventually save money down the road.

Although
it would be a noble aim to act as conscious and compassionate
citizens, all in all, that would be the proverbial drop on a hot
stone. Each of us has responsibilities to change things for the
better, of course. We want to become more ethical, more aware, more
socially and politically active.

But
instead of a bottom-up approach, saving pennies and making small
adjustments, if we could only reach the very top and touch the
hearts of those who have enough resources to make or break whole
nations, then we could make even bigger strides. Let us add
compassion and heart into the equation of capitalism and let us peel
away from it all that is bad and harmful. We do not want to be left
with a gaping and open wound and abyss between the top 1% and all the
rest of us significantly down below.

3 comments:

Hi Arash, as ever you've summarized the situation with admirable comprehensiveness and balance. I usually try to find something to argue with and make that the substance of my comment. But in this instance I'd like to recommend a book which itself has admirable comprehensiveness and balance, is vast in scope and fresh in approach, and is sometimes infuriating too.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. I note that it was published last month over here in UK but not till next Feb on US Amazon. I might write about it on mine some time, but it's rather a big task to do that. You are the one, I think, to take it on!

I meant to add that the book has a big chapter on capitalism: how it came about, the factors which made it the dominant force in the world, and what it has turned into. The implication is that only with an understanding of these can it be controlled.

For it's an impersonal system, like an evolutionary force of nature. the ruthless will always get to the top. Philanthropy will always be a patchy phenomenon. So its practitioners cannot control it. Only an external force can do that.

But what if its power is greater than that of governments, who along with science usually owe their flourishing to its patronage?

Thanks for the kind words and the book recommendation, Vincent! It sounds very interesting, and I would love to check it out. That being said, it would be great if you could tackle it as well and perhaps we would be able to compare notes / posts on it?

Yes, capitalism is a whale of a force that swallows all if not checked and balanced. It would be easier if it were or could be checked internally, that is if the capitalists themselves capped their own earnings and ambitions.

When it comes to an external force, it could get a little problematic and would become a much more complicated issue then since capitalism is generally opposed to limits.

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